Object-holding hands for dolls

ABSTRACT

A doll which can be operated to hold and release objects when a child depresses levers in the doll body, one of the doll hands including a grasping thumb and the other having a magnet that can slide therein to magnetically attract and release objects. The doll is especially entertaining when used with accessories of the type found in a supermarket, one accessory being a price tag constructed of magnetically attractable material and attached to a toy package, to enable the doll to magnetically hold and release the package.

United States Patent Lewis et ad.

[ 51 Oct. 10,1972

[54] OBJECT-HOLDING HANDS FOR DOLLS [72] Inventors: J. Stephen Lewis, Pacific Palisades; Jurgis Sapkus, Manhattan Beach; Armando P. Villasana, Los Angeles,

all of Calif.

[73] Assignee: Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif.

[22] Filed: July 16, 1971 21 Appl. No.: 163,202

[52] US. Cl ..46/ll6, 46/163 7 [51] Int. Cl. ..A63h 13/00 [58] Field of Search ..46/l16, 119, 120,161,162, 46/163, 173, 236, 238, 247

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,153,881 10/1964 Baulard-Logan "46/120 X 3,071,893 l/1963 Schwartz ..46/163 Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant ExaminerD. L. Weinhold AttorneySeymour A. Scholnick [5 7] ABSTRACT A doll which can be operated to hold and release objects when a child depresses levers in the doll body, one of the doll hands including a grasping thumb and the other having a magnet that can slide therein to magnetically attract and release objects. The doll is especially entertaining when used with accessories of the type found in a supermarket, one accessory being a price tag constructed of magnetically attractable material and attached to a toy package, to enable the doll to magnetically hold and release the package.

3 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures OBJECT-HOLDING HANDS FOR DOLLS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention This invention relates to dolls and accessories therefor.

2. Description of the Prior Art The entertainment value of dolls can be enhanced by constructing them with joints that allow posing in a variety of positions and by providing entertaining animations. Thus, doll hands which can be oriented in a variety of positions with respect to the body and which are constructed to hold on to and release objects as a child manipulates a lever on the body, would be entertaining. However, mechanisms for enabling remote operation of the dolls hands generally become increasingly complex if they must operate through joints that pivot to a variety of positions. In order for animating mechanisms to be used in a versatilely poseable doll, the mechanism must be simple to enable the doll to be constructed and sold at low cost.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a doll with a versatilely poseable hand that can be remotely operated to grasp and release articles.

Another object is to provide a doll which can hold and release objects in a novel manner.

Still another object is to provide attractive toy articles which can be readily held and released by a doll.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a doll is provided which has poseable hands, one constructed with a pivotable thumb to grasp objects and the other constructed with a magnet that magnetically attracts and releases objects. Both the thumb and magnet devices are operable by depression of hidden levers in the doll body. The hand with grasping thumb includes a hand housing with an inner end rotatably mounted on the doll arm and the outer end representing a hand. The hand housing has a hole at the thumb location, and a thumb lever pivotally mounted in the hand housing has a thumb portion extending through the hole. A spring within the housing urges the thumb towards a closed position. A cord is coupled to the lever and extends through the doll arm into the body. The cord can be pulled to pivot the thumb to an open position, by depressing a lever on the doll body. The hand as well as the arm can be rotated to pose them to a variety of positions without interfering with operation of the thumb.

The other arm of the doll contains a magnet that can slide towards and away from the doll hand. A spring urges the magnet to slide forward into the hand so that the hand can hold onto magnetically attractable objects. A cord is coupled to the magnet and extends through the arm into the doll body. The cord can be pulled to withdraw the magnet and release the object, by depressing another lever on the doll body. In order to encourage stable retention of magnetically attractable objects, the magnetic hand is formed so that it is bent upwardly at the wrist. This enables objects to be held against a substantially flat palm region of the hand. The magnetic hand mechanism is especially useful with price tags affixed to toy packages, wherein the price tags are constructed of magnetically attractable material to enable the doll to magnetically hold the package.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a doll constructed in accordance with the invention, shown pushing a shopping cart accessory;

FIG. 2 is a sectional front view of the doll of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional side view of the magnet mechanism in the right hand of the doll of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the pivotable thumb mechanism of the left of the doll;

FIG. 7 is a sectional side view of the hand of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a view taken on the line 8+8 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the manual operating mechanism in the doll of FIG. 2;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a magnetically attractable price tag accessory, shown affixed to a toy package and being picked up by the magnetic hand of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of another tag accessory on a package.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 illustrates a doll 10 with a pair of arm assemblies or arms l2, 14 that are pivotally mounted on the doll body 16 for positioning in a variety of orientations. A hand assembly or hand 18, 20 is mounted on the outer end of each arm. Each hand 18, 20 is constructed to hold onto objects and release them on command. The right hand 18 has a magnet 22 that attracts and holds iron objects and the like to the hand until a child depresses a button portion 50 of a control lever 24 at the side of the doll body to withdraw the magnet and release the object. The left hand 20 includes a pivotally mounted thumb 26 which is spring biased to a closed position to mechanically hold objects. A child can pivot the thumb 26 to an open position by depressing another button portion 96 of another control lever 28 at the left side of the doll body. The doll is of a type that can be made to walk by rocking it from side to side. The doll can represent a shopper, and in that connection, the hand 20 can grasp the handle of a toy supermarket cart 30 and push it as the doll walks.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 5, it can be seen that the magnetic right hand includes a guide 32 that guides the magnet 22 in slideable movement towards and away from a palm region 34 of the hand. A coil spring 36 which extends between a bracket 38 and the inner end of the magnet 22, urges the magnet to slide toward the palm region 34 to hold iron articles there against. However, a cord 40 which extends through the spring and is attached to the inner end of the magnet 22, can be pulled to retract the magnet 22 from the palm wall 34. Of course, as the magnet is withdrawn from the palm wall 34, the magnetic attraction that holds articles to the hand 18 is decreased and the articles may then be released to fall.

The cord 40 extends through the hollow arm 12, around a post 42 and through an armature 44 into the doll body 16. The cord further extends through a slot 46 in the control lever 24, and the cord has a bushing 48 at its inner end to prevent movement through the slot. The control lever 24 is pivotally mounted so that when the button portion 50 thereon is depressed, the walls of the slot 46 move in the direction of arrow 52 to pull on the'cord. Accordingly, when a child depresses the button portion 50, the magnet 22 in the right arm is withdrawn to release any object held by the hand. A lever spring 54 urges the control lever 24 to return to its original position, to allow outward movement of the cord 40 and therefore permit the magnet 22 to move forward against the palm region 34 of the hand. FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate the form of the control lever 24. The control lever has an axle portion 56 pivotally mounted near the rear of the doll body. Both the manually depressable button portion 50 and the slot 46 through which the string extends are located forward of the axle portion 56, so that the cord 40 is pulled when the button portion 50 is depressed.

In order for the magnetic hand apparatus to hold objects in a stable manner, the right hand 18 of the doll is formed with the palm region 34 bent up at the wrist, and with the fingers extending straight and in alignment with the palm. This arrangement, best seen in FIG. 1, provides a relatively flat area so that flat magnetically attractable objects can lie against the palm and finger regions without swinging. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, a center region 34C of the palm wall is made especially thin so that the magnet can move very close to the outer surface of the palm. This provides a small gap between the magnet and article to be held, so that a weak magnet can hold a relatively heavy article.

The doll arm 12 is mounted on the doll body 16 in a manner that allows pivoting about a transverse horizontal axis 58 (FIG. 2) without limit and that also allows pivoting by several degrees about another horizontal axis 60 which is perpendicular to the transverse axis 58. The armature 44 prevents the arm 12 from being pulled out of the body, while permitting unrestrained rotation about the axis 58. The armature 44 is installed loosely enough so that it does not prevent pivoting by up to several degrees in either direction around the axis 16. The use of a cord 40 permits transmission of forces to retract the magnet, from the body to the arm without interfering with the pivotal connection of the arm to the body. The cord is guided by the post 42 to extend along the transverse axis of rotation 58 of the arm on the body, so that the cord is only twisted somewhat as the arm is rotated thereabout.

The left arm assembly 14, which contains the movable thumb 26 is shown in detail in FIGS. 2 and 6-8. The grasping hand includes a pair of hand housing members 62, 64 (FIG. 6) that define a hand, but with a hole 66 at the thumb region. The thumb 26 is a portion of a thumb lever 68 that has a pair of trunnions 70 pivotally mounted on bearings 72 formed in one of the hand housing members 62. When the thumb lever 68 is in place on the bearings 72 and the hand housing members 62, 64 are together, the thumb 26 protrudes through the hole 66 and can pivot between a closed position, wherein it lies substantially against the middle finger 74, and an open position away from the middle finger. A spring 76 is provided to urge the thumb lever towards a closed position. The spring has one end 78 (FIG. 7) resting in a slot in the thumb lever 68 and another end 80 lying behind a ledge on the housing member 62. In order to enable remote control of thumb movement, a thumb-controlling cord 82 is provided which has one end which extends through a hole 84 in the thumb lever and is held in place by a mechanical stop. The cord 82 extends over a guide 86, through a hole 88 at the center of the inner end housing, and along the hollow left arm into the doll body. When tension is applied to the cord 82, it pivots the thumb lever 68 towards an open position, while release of cord tension allows the spring 76 to return the thumb to the closed position.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cord 82 extends over a post 90 near the top of the arm, and through an armature 92 into the doll body. The mechanism for guiding the pull cord from the post 90 into the body and for enabling manual pulling of the cord, is substantially identical to the mechanism described above in the case of the right arm, except that certain parts are mirror images of the corresponding parts for the right arm. Thus, the cord extends through a slot 93 in the left control lever 28, and a bushing 94 attached to the inner end of the cord maintains it in place. The left control lever 28 is pivotally mounted on the doll body and has a manually depressable left button portion 96 that can be depressed by a child to pivot the lever so that the cord 82 is pulled to open the thumb. The spring 54 extends between the two button portions 50 and 96 of the two control levers, to simultaneously bias both of them towards their outer positions.

The left hand housing 61 has an inner portion 98 that is rotatably mounted on the forearm portion of the left arm 14. This permits the left hand 20 to be rotated to any desired position with respect to the rest of the arm. The fact that the cord 82 extends through the hole 88, which is coaxial with the axis of rotation of the hand 20 on the rest of the arm, means that there is substantially no interference with free rotation of the hand 20. Also, at any rotational position of the hand 20, the cord 82 can be pulled by manual depression of the left button portion 96 to open the thumb. As in the case of the right arm, the cord also permits free pivoting of the entire arm 14 with respect to the body 16.

The doll has a walking mechanism 100 that couples the two doll legs 102 and 104 to the doll body. The mechanism 100 pivots one leg forward when the other pivots rearwardly, so that the doll can be made to walk by tilting it from side to side as it is urged forward. This permits the doll to push the supermarket cart 30, as shown in FIG. 1, while the hand 20 holds onto the cart handle. If desired, both hands can hold onto the cart handle, if it is made of iron or steel so that it can be held by the magnet in the right hand.

FIG. 10 illustrates a price tag accessory 106 which can be employed with the doll. The price tag 106 is constructed with a magnetically attractable material such as iron, so that it can be attracted by the magnet 22 in the right hand of the doll. The tag 106 may have a price marking on it and may be attached by glue or other means to a simulated package 108. The doll therefore can pick up the package 108 if its hand 18 is moved against the price tag 106. The doll can be made to release the package into the shopping cart by operation of the control button 50 at the right side of the doll. Instead of marking a price on the magnetically attractable tag, it is possible to print a product identification or other package-identifying marking such as Cereal on it, as illustrated on the identification tag 110 of FIG. 11 which is mounted on a package 112. The novelty of a doll hand somewhat magically holding and releasing packages adds to the entertainment value of the toy. Of course, a small toy package also can be picked up and released by the left hand which has the grasping thumb 26.

Thus, the invention provides doll hand mechanisms which enable remote holding and release of objects. The mechanisms do not interfere with pivoting of the doll at the arms or wrist, where such ability to pivot is otherwise incorporated, because of the use of the cord operating device. The provision of a grasping thumb and a magnetic holding mechanism on the different hands of the doll enables a choice of method of holding objects. The doll is normally clothed, and a child can grasp the doll body and depress the knob portion of either control lever to operate the mechanisms, and this is accomplished in an unobtrusive manner and utilizing only one hand of the child.

Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is recognized that modifications and variations may readily occur to those skilled in the art and, consequently, it is intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.

What is claimed is:

1. A doll comprising:

a doll body;

an arm mounted on said body;

a hand housing with a forward portion representing a hand and a rearward portion mounted on said arm, said hand housing having a hole at the thumb location;

a lever having a first end representing a thumb and projecting through said hole and a second end pivotably mounted within said hand housing;

a spring urging said lever to pivot towards a position wherein said thumb is closed on said hand to grasp an object;

a cord attached to said lever to pivot it so that said thumb moves towards an open position when the cord is pulled, said cord extending through said arm and into said body; and

manually operable means mounted on said body for pulling said cord.

2. The doll described in claim 1 wherein:

said rearward portion of said hand housing is rotatably mounted on said arm; and

said arm includes means for guiding said cord so that it extends substantially along the axis of rotation of said hand housing on said arm at the location where it leaves said hand housing, whereby rotation of the hand housing on the arm does not affect the pivotal position of the thumb lever.

3. The doll described in claim 1 wherein:

said manually operable means includes a control lever pivotally mounted on said doll body and having a depressable button portion at one side of the doll bod said cord cou led to said control lever to be pu led as said but on portion is depressed;

and including second doll animation means;

a second control lever pivotally mounted on said doll body and having a second depressable button portion at a side of said doll body opposite said first mentioned button portion, for operating said second doll animation means; and

a coil spring extending between said button portions at said opposite sides of said doll body to urge them outwardly. 

1. A doll comprising: a doll body; an arm mounted on said body; a hand housing with a forward portion representing a hand and a rearward portion mounted on said arm, said hand housing having a hole at the thumb location; a lever having a first end representing a thumb and projecting through said hole and a second end pivotably mounted within said hand housing; a spring urging said lever to pivot towards a position wherein said thumb is closed on said hand to grasp an object; a cord attached to said lever to pivot it so that said thumb moves towards an open position when the cord is pulled, said cord extending through said arm and into said body; and manually operable means mounted on said body for pulling said cord.
 2. The doll described in claim 1 wherein: said rearward portion of said hand housing is rotatably mounted on said arm; and said arm includes means for guiding said cord so that it extends substantially along the axis of rotation of said hand housing on said arm at the location where it leaves said hand housing, whereby rotation of the hand housing on the arm does not affect the pivotal position of the thumb lever.
 3. The doll described in claim 1 wherein: said manually operable means includes a control lever pivotally mounted on said doll body and having a depressable button portion at one side of the doll body, said cord coupled to said control lever to be pulled as said button portion is depressed; and including second doll animation means; a second control lever pivotally mounted on said doll body and having a second depressable button portion at a side of said doll body opposite said first mentioned button portion, for operating said second doll animation means; and a coil spring extending between said button portions at said opposite sides of said doll body to urge them outwardly. 